This is the view from my room in Le Meridien Hotel. This is a five-star hotel. The building and facility are very nice but the management and customer service is so bad. I would never use this hotel again.

Today, I had some problem because I did not know the time change. During the Ramadan and the feast after it, Egypt change the time one hour earlier so that they can eat one hour earlier. Now, the Ramadan and the following feast is over, so Egypt came back to its normal time. Everything could have been messed up.

Ramses II

In the morning I went to the Mit Rahina Museum which was the temple originally for the god of textile and craftsman. He is also believed to created the universe because he is craftsgod. There is a huge statue of Rameses II. Ramses II is the most powerful Pharaoh and everywhere the archaeologists dig in Egypt, people say that they find the name of Ramses II.

First Stone Building in the world

This is the first stone building in the world. And the first means no experience, so they also built some useless or unnecessary supporting wall for the columns.

First Pyramid

This is the first pyramid in Egypt, and also in the world.

Pharaoh’s Court

This is the Pharaoh’s court. The platform in the front is where Pharaoh sits, and the wall on both sides has the governors’ seats. Pharaoh promoted, punished, or executed the governors in this place.

No Egyptian Cats but dogs

Egypt has image of cat more than pyramids to me. But for three days in Egypt, I have not seen any cat yet but a lot of dogs – Taba, Sharm, Cairo, and Luxor. It is really hot here in Egypt, and Luxor was 47C or 117F yesterday, that is why all the dogs are looking for shades. It was probably National geographic, if my memory serves me right, that they examined the cat’s DNA and concluded that the all cats in the world are descendents of originally five female cats in Egypt. And Genographic project also found by the same technology of comparing and examining DNA that all living human race in the whole world are descendents of one female, namely mitochondria Eve.

Titi Pyramid Entrance

This is the Pyramid of Pharaoh Titi, the longest lived ruler in Egypt history, and the last Pharaoh of the first or ancient kingdom.

Longest Reigned Pharaoh with Humblest Tomb

During his reign, the Pharaoh lost its power and got weaker, so his Pyramid is quite small and even inside is very humble.

Servant’s Tomb is more Glorious

But one of his high officials who had the real power, made his tomb so glorious and bigger than the Titi. The photograph was forbidden inside so I could not take any picture, but it was literally so beautiful and every picture or wall carving was very good in detail.

Traditional Carpet Making

I was told that there are five industries that still survived in the traditional method. Carpet making is one of them.

Papyrus Factory

Then I went to a papyrus factory. Papyrus was worshipped because of two things. The first one is its flower is looks like a sun is emitting its power and light. The second one is that its stem looks like pyramid. The worker in the factory showed and explained me how to make Papyrus paper (actually the word paper itself came out of papyrus).

Chicken Chicken!

And I had lunch at a very nice restaurant where the chicken is specialised. Not like in American or Canada, water is not free in Egypt. I experienced that in Luxor hotel, Cairo restaurant, and even in a restaurant at Haifa, Israel. Because of yesterday’s experience, I brought my own water bottle today – saving money!

Climbing a Pyramid

Then I went to the great pyramids in Giza. As I knew already, the pyramids surface is like a steps. But I was told that they are originally very smooth but during the Islam reign, the rulers took the nice stones on the surface to build mosques.

Picking a Pyramid

On the top parts of the centre pyramid, you can see the original surface of the pyramids.

Labourers’ Village

This is the village and cemetery of the workers. Traditionally we believed that the pyramids were built by the forced labour of the slaves. Couple of years ago, I watched NHN documentary about this, and an archaeologist found this worker’s village, and he also found some writing, which is task manager’s journal. It has the recordings such as the names of the worker, and how many days he worked, And in case he did not work, what was the reason. Some of the reasons are he got hurt, he is in medication, and his son has wedding party, or he has his father’s funeral. Which slave can drop t he daily labour and work to attend his son’s wedding? Pyramids were built by the freemen, and it may work as the national project to boom the economy as America did – mass construction of roads, dams, and other infrastructure.

Sphinx

Who can skip this Sphinx in Egypt?

Horse Station

There are so many horses in Egypt and even they have horse stations in most tourist attractions.

When I came back to Hotel, the cardkey to my room did not work. I tried, and other hotel staff tried, but it did not work. So I went down to the reception and asked them. A guy checked with computer and told me that I already checked out this morning. What the heck! I explained him that my reservation is until Sunday morning. Then other guy checked the computer and told me that 3090 is not my room. Well, I slept there until this morning, and I did not check out. And third guy checked the computer and told me that my room is 3045. I said to him in a little bit loud voice, “how can you change my room without telling me anything at all?” Then I began to worry about my stuff. Finally I went up to my original room and thankfully all my stuff was there. Then I got the new cardkey, and reconfirmed my room.

I was so mad, and I wanted to complain to the manager. So I went down to the reception with the reception guy who came up to the room with me. He asked me to wait five minutes. So I did. After fifteen minutes, he came to me and the manager is busy, and he would call to my room if I go up and rest. He also said it would take ten minutes. Now, five hours passed, but no call. It was very obvious that all the hotel staffs are trying their best to protect their manager from me. Le Meridien Hotel in Giza Cairo – do not use this one because customer service is very bad. Today I also saw an Arabic speaking guy was yelling in the reception, and a middle-aged lady also was very mad.

Pyramids and Moon

I also went to the night-light show of the pyramids.

I had some chance to talk with Egyptians about current Israel-Gaza situation. In my assumption, Egyptians would support Gaza, so I usually began my conversation by blaming Israel about the cruelty. But to my surprise, most of them did not like Hamas at all. I cannot transcribe all the conversations and dialogues, so I will just summarise them.

Hamas is not even a (true) Muslim

Hamas should stop making rockets and tunnels and use that money on the Gazans.

Hamas is a branch of Muslim Brotherhood and we had bad experience with them in Egypt.

Hamas also killed many Palestinians in Gaza.

Hamas refused to form one government with the West Bank, this is same as riot or coup.

Hamas must dismiss themselves and Gaza must make one government with the West Bank.

Using violence is wrong and it is not Islamic.

Hamas must follow the example of West Bank which is the resistance without violence.

Gazans are dumb that is why they cannot say no to Hamas. Egyptians did revolution three years ago, and we are walking toward true democracy.

Hamas should not fire rockets to Israeli civilians. To military base is ok. Killing unarmed people is not Islamic

And I also asked people if they identify themselves also as Africans because Egypt is in Africa. Such as most Koreans, Japanese, and Chinese identify themselves as Asians at the same time with their identity of being Koreans, Japanese, and Chinese. And all people whom I asked said “We are Egyptian. We are not African at all.”